Denver woman sees murder victim struggling with killer

The man, who has a connection to one of the other serial murders, is someone who has piqued the curiosity of investigators in some of the cases but has not been named a suspect.

But detectives investigating the cases recently said they showed the airport employee eight photo lineups — including the picture she said she had identified in 1986 — but she didn’t pick out the picture this time.

Approached at his home by a reporter and asked whether he would be willing to talk, the man replied, “Definitely no.”

Car weaving erratically

On that morning in 1986, the airline employee was headed north on Picadilly at 5:30 a.m. It was still dark.

From a distance, she saw a car weaving erratically. As she drew closer, she saw the blond girl flailing at the shirtless man’s right arm. The car’s tires screeched to a halt.

As the airline employee drove up to within 10 feet of the parked car, her high beams spotlighted the driver, who whipped his head around and glared. His wavy blond hair was slicked back with sweat.

“He had a very intense look in his eyes,” she recalled. “No fear. The way he looked at me, I immediately knew something was very wrong.”

It was an abduction and rape in progress, she thought.

She swerved onto the shoulder of the road. As she drove around to the passenger side of the car, the shirtless man was distracted enough that the girl opened her door and got her feet on the pavement.

“She was saying ‘Help me! Help me!’ ” while stretching her arms out in front of her, palms up, reaching. The hysterical girl was moments from freedom, but he yanked her violently back into the car.

The Stapleton worker raced in the car to the closest house, leaving her car running and the door open, and pounded on the door. She wanted the man who answered to get a gun and give chase. Instead, he called authorities.

When a policeman arrived, he downplayed the urgency of the situation, saying that it was likely a domestic fight, she said.

“I was adamant this girl’s life was in danger,” she said.

The officer drove her up and down Picadilly looking for the red car that the man and woman had been in. They found a red car parked beside the road.

I just watched the Dark Minds episode featuring this case, and I think this along with the 3 other murders where the victims were posed are the work of the same offender. Even though Donna was not displayed like the others (leading some to think her case is not related) she was still posed nonetheless. Because the anonymous witness happened upon the crime in progress, the offender was spooked and knew that his usual method could not be carried out at that point. He likely was planning to leave the body along the road side as he did with the others, but feared the witness had contacted law enforcement who would surely be out investigating that area. The offender had no choice but to take Donna somewhere else, but still couldn’t resist his usual M.O by posing her.

He’s obviously a narcissist, and I think he feels he gains control through shock value by displaying his victims. Most true narcissists like to manipulate others, whether through eliciting anger, excitement, shock, etc. as a way of controlling through emotions. For that brief moment, the narcissist has complete control of what a person is feeling. In addition to control, he also degrades the victim even further by leaving them in such a manner. I sincerely hope the renewed attention on these cases leads to the apprehension of this person. Offenders like this do not stop and unless he’s already in prison or dead, it could happen again. The victim’s families need justice!

Felicia Bellerose

The description of what exactly happened and what this other woman saw is very confusing to me.. I will try to watch the Dark Minds episode to understand it clearer. I am an Aurora native and had not ever heard of this case. I am very glad to see it is getting attention.

Kirk Mitchell is a general assignment reporter at The Denver Post who focuses on criminal justice stories. He began working at the newspaper in 1998, after writing for newspapers in Mesa, Ariz., and Twin Falls, Idaho, and The Associated Press in Salt Lake City. Mitchell first started writing the Cold Case blog in Fall 2007, in part because Colorado has more than 1,400 unsolved homicides.